Cubs had a lot of bad luck against the White Sox this week
I can’t remember the last time I was genuinely excited for the Crosstown Classic. Even when the Cubs were at their peak over the last five-plus years, it just never felt as exciting as when I was younger. Maybe it’s because now that I’m older, I understand the White Sox being good means nothing in regards to how competitive the North Siders are. Who knows?
Regardless of how I personally felt about the series, the South Siders took it to David Ross’ club earlier this week in a quick two-game set at Wrigley Field, taking both contests and dropping the Cubs to 9-15 on the year. Make no mistake – the Cubs’ offense, which looked like it had really figured something out early, needs to find ways to manufacture more runs. But they also ran into some ridiculous bad luck, especially in the series finale.
“We’ve got to change our luck,” Ross told MLB.com. “We had plenty of opportunities to push a run across there at the end and tie the ballgame up, or make a pitch, or make a play. I don’t think we played particularly bad. I just think there’s some things that didn’t go our way.”
My wife and I were out with the dog on a badly-needed walk (seriously, the dog is going stir crazy with all the rain lately) – but I got back just in time to see Luis Robert make an eye-catching grab before running into the brick wall in center field, robbing Willson Contreras of what looked like an extra-base knock.
And, well, that pretty much told the story on Wednesday night: the Sox hit dribblers and they turned into something while the Cubs had nothing to show for several hard-hit balls.
Cubs may have been unlucky, but a 1-for-25 showing isn’t going to cut it
At the end of the day, though, when nobody in the lineup outside of your eight and nine-hole hitters have multiple hits, odds are you’re going to come out on the wrong side of a ballgame. Patrick Wisdom and Nico Hoerner each collected a pair of knocks – including a homer each – but the Cubs’ one through seven hitters combined to go 1-for-25 with two walks and 10 strikeouts.
That’s not going to get the job done.
April’s National League Rookie of the Month Seiya Suzuki continued to struggle, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout as his average dropped to .250 on the year. It’s hard not to draw at least somewhat of a connection between the outfielder’s offensive woes lately and Chicago’s overall disappointing performance – and you can bet getting him back on track is a top priority.
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The league has seemingly figured out the Cubs’ plan at the plate and have adjusted accordingly. Now, it’s on the club to respond and figure out how to get the bats going heading into a weekend showdown with the powerhouse Dodgers.